Americans need to face the reality that "we are not equal," a Ball State University student said Wednesday night at an event for Asian Awareness Week.
Junior Gennie Nguyen said Americans liked to think they were equal rather than dealing with equality issues.
Students debated the issues various minority groups have to face,and Lily Tsay, president of the Asian American Student Association, presented "Who killed Vincent Chin? Civil Rights Violations within Asian America" in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.
Chin, a 27 year-old Chinese American, went to a bachelor party in Detroit on June 19, 1982. at the Fancy Pants Tavern. At the tavern, two Americans, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, accosted Chin. Thinking he was Japanese, they confronted him about how Japanese people were taking away American jobs in the automotive industry. The three were ordered to leave the tavern, and later that evening Ebens and Nitz caught up with Chin and beat his skull with a baseball bat. Chin died four days later, just days before his wedding.
"It's not fair," were the last words muttered by Chin before falling into a coma, Tsay said. Ebens and Nitz served no jail time for the murder and only paid court fees and probation time. Tsay said a judge speaking about the two men said they didn't deserve to be jailed for what they did.
Tsay said the judge said "You don't make the punishment fit the crime, you make the punishment fit the criminal."
Though hate crimes happen often, many Asians feel Chin is a martyr because his murderers got away with it and their actions were tolerated, Tsay said.
"It's about time to speak up," she said.
Several students at the workshop agreed society is aware of racial issues, but they choose to ignore it and not deal with the problem.
Radford said he felt blacks had more issues to face than Asian Americans and racism against blacks was covered more in the media. He wanted to know the primary issues Asian Americans felt they had to deal with.
Nguyen said Asian Americans had the same issues to deal with, but it wasn't as talked about because they are underrepresented.
LaToya Black, a graduate student, said she did not think there has been any race that has not been faced with a racial atrocity. She said people tend to give up on these problems because they have been going on for so long, and some people do not think things will ever improve.
Students agreed that while the issue has been addressed, not enough has been done to improve the situation.
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